This invention relates to a sliding/lifting roof for vehicles, especially motor vehicles, having a rigid cover for closing an opening in the roof and which is slidingly guided, in the area of its front edge at both longitudinal sides of the opening of the roof, by means of respective guiding members, each, in a longitudinal guide, being pivotable around a swivel axis extending transversely to the cover-sliding direction and being connected, in an area located at a distance in a rear direction from the front edge of said cover, via a tilt-out mechanism. A drive member, that is adjustable in the cover-sliding direction, enables the cover to, selectively, be either swung out of the roof opening by lifting its rear edge above the fixed roof surface, or slid, after lowering its rear edge, below a fixed rear roof surface, in which case the tilt-out mechanism has a link that is adjustable jointly with said drive member, and has a tilt-out lever that engages with said link, with said tilt-out lever being pivoted at said cover so that it rotates around a shaft fixed at said cover, and relative to said link being longitudinally movable and also swingable for a certain distance in the sliding direction of said cover.
In case of a known sliding/lifting roof of this type (DE-PS No. 19 19 479), the tilt-out lever, at the end away from the cover, has a pin which is longitudinally slideable in a linear guide slot of the link and can be rotated freely in any position. The link itself, via a joint-parallelogram-type elevating device, is connected with a transport bridge forming the drive member, by means of which elevating device the cover, with its rear edge, can be changed from the lowered position into the closed position in order to then, if desired, be tilted out via the tilt-out lever by sliding of the link. The known tilt-out mechanism consists of many parts. The sliding/lifting roof provided with this tilt-out mechanism is subject to vibrations and rattling noises unless relatively expensive additional measures are taken.
The invention is based on the objective of creating a sliding/lifting roof of the initially-mentioned type that requires few component parts and guarantees an especially secure and stable guiding of the cover with a suppression of the tendency to vibrate and rattle.
According to the invention, this objective is achieved in that the link and the tilt-out lever, via an additional forcing guide, are connected with one another, with said forcing guide, at least in the range of the cover adjustment, between the closed position of the cover and the lowered rear edge of the cover, forcing said tilt-out lever for each position of the link with respect to the longitudinal guidance into a predetermined swivel position with respect to the link.
This measure ensures an exact coordination between the movement of the link and the swivel movement of the tilt-out lever. Uncontrolled movements of the cover, especially also vibrating movements, are effectively prevented.
In a further development of the invention, the tilt-out lever, via an additional forcing guide, can be forced to carry out a swivel movement, with respect to the link, that takes along the rear edge of the cover into the lowered position.
The additional forcing guide, in the displacement range corresponding to the closed position of the cover, preferably has an idle range, during the passage of which the swivel position of the tilt-out lever, with respect to the link, is kept constant irrespective of a longitudinal movement of the link. In the case of a motor drive of the sliding/lifting roof, such an idle range neutralizes an inertia-caused after-running of the drive motor after the switch-off.
The additional forcing guide is advantageously formed by a link pin fastened at the link and engaging in a guide slot of the tilt-out lever, as well as by a cam that is mounted at the tilt-out lever, and can be moved along a cam path of the link. In this manner, a stable three-point connection is obtained between the link and the tilt-out lever in the various relative operational positions. The cam is preferably elastic or is elastically mounted at the tilt-out lever in order to cause the relative movement between the tilt-out lever and the link to take place under a slight initial tension and, therefore, to be free from play. The cam may especially be a roller made of an elastic material or having a layer made of an elastic material, with said roller being rotatably disposed at the tilt-out lever.
For the mutual connection of the link and the tilt-out lever, the link advantageously has a longitudinal slot in which a sliding piece is guided so that it can be slid in the sliding direction of the cover, and the tilt-out lever is linked to said sliding piece. In order to preset the final position of the cover in the swung-out position, the link and the tilt-out lever may have interacting stop faces for limiting the swing-out movement of the tilt-out lever with respect to the link. The link and the tilt-out lever may also, preferably, have complementary cylindrical contact surfaces for guiding the tilt-out lever during the tilting-out process. Thus, the occurring forces may be intercepted on a large area.
In order to avoid an undesired vertical movement of the cover during the sliding movement of the lowered cover to the front or to the rear, it is advantageous to mount a holding-down device on both sides of the cover that interacts with the longitudinal guide, with said holding device, during the tilting-out of the cover, disengaging from the longitudinal guide.
In order to further stabilize the cover, a stop is advantageously provided that goes along with the longitudinal movement of the cover, with said stop, during the tilting-out of the cover, resting against a counter-stop preventing a longitudinal movement of the cover. The stop may be attached to a sealing bridge that can be longitudinally adjusted together with the cover, with said sealing bridge forming a water channel located below the rear edge of the cover and, in the closed position of the cover, being pressable from below against the bottom side of the cover or the fixed rear roof surface, as explained in detail in commonly assigned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 483,176, U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,442, filed Apr. 8, 1983, which application is incorporated herein to the extent necessary for an understanding of this aspect. In this case, the stop may, at the same time, be part of an adjusting mechanism for pushing the sealing bridge upward.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention.